A “condiment” is something that is added to food to impart or enhance its flavor. Many condiments are available packaged in single-serving packets, such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, food sauces (e.g., Bar-B-Q, hot sauces, dipping sauces, and soy sauce, etc.), salad dressings, etc. These food sauces are particularly supplied with take-out or fast-food meals. Condiments are usually applied by the diner.
At many fast-food restaurants, food courts and food trucks, condiments are dispensed with manual pumps from a reservoir containing the condiment. Such condiments are also dispensed with automatic pumps, in some cases the automatic pumps are activated with sensor or detectors such as infra-red detectors.
One problem with manual pumps is that the pump handle collects bacteria or viruses since multiple users touch the pump handle daily. Such bacteria leads to unsanitary conditions and cross contamination on the pump handle and may cause a user to contract a disease or lead to a disease outbreak (e.g., Flu, Cold, E. Coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis, etc.) Another problem with manual pumps is the amount of condiment dispensed is inconsistent and unregulated dependent on how hard or how many times a user pushes down the pump handle. A large force will dispense a large amount of the condiment. A small force will dispense a small amount of the condiment. Multiple pumps will result in an excessive amount of the condiment being dispensed. This leads to an unsanitary method for dispensing condiments that is waste full creating unnecessary costs for the business owner supplying the condiments.
One problem with the automatic pumps is that if a single sensor or detector is used, a person moving or standing near the pump may unintentionally activate the sensor and dispense the condiment. Another problem is that children often activate such automatic pumps over and over causing wasteful dispensing of the condiments and creating a mess.
There have some attempts to solve some of the problems associated with condiment dispensers. There are also some similar solutions for automatically dispensing hand soap.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,700,809, that issued to Ferragut teaches ‘A substance communicating device for use in conjunction with an appliance or a system including an appliance and a substance communicating device. The substance communicating device has a service connector component operably engageable with a service connector component of the appliance to permit the communication of a substance between the appliance and the substance communicating device. Information related to the substance can be communicated to the appliance and used to affect the physical cycle of operation of the appliance.”
U.S. Pat. No. 8,650,736 that issued to Robertson, et al. teaches “A dispenser for viscous condiments including a tubular sidewall having opposite ends. One opposite end is open and can receive a plunger or piston therein for applying force to a condiment contained within the tubular sidewall. The other end of the sidewall includes a dispenser valve assembly including a member secured to an inturned flange portion of the sidewall with the flange portion being generally normal to the sidewall. The dispenser valve assembly is suitably secured to the flange portion as by heat sealing, such as a bead of hot melt, to form a composite laminated structure that is resistant to the penetration of liquid elements of the condiments. The dispenser valve assembly further includes a valve plate having one or more selectively openable discharge openings that will open and close under the influence of the pressure applied to the condiment in order to discharge the condiment.”
U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,781, that issued to Robertson, et al. teaches “dispenser is provided for viscous condiments. The dispenser includes a tubular sidewall having opposite ends. One opposite end is open and can receive a plunger or piston therein for applying force to condiment contained within a compartment inside of the sidewall. The other end of the sidewall includes a dispenser valve assembly comprising a member secured to an inturned flange portion of the sidewall with the flange portion being generally normal to the sidewall. The dispenser valve assembly is suitably secured to the flange portion as by heat sealing to form a composite laminated structure that is resistant to the penetration of liquids from the condiments. A bead of hot melt can be provided to seal an exposed outer edge of the dispenser valve assembly and to seal the dispenser valve assembly to the sidewall. The dispenser valve assembly includes a valve plate having one or more selectively openable discharge openings formed therein that will open and close under the influence of pressure applied to the condiment within the dispenser.”
U.S. Pat. No. 8,096,445, that issued to Yang, et al. teaches “An electric soap dispenser that includes sensors for detecting the presence of an object. The dispenser can be configured to dispense an amount of liquid soap, for example, upon detecting the presence of an object. The dispenser can include various features for enhancing the performance thereof. For example, the dispenser can include an additional button for manual operation of the pump. Additionally, the dispenser can detect the voltage of a power supply and compensate for a drop in voltage of the power supply so as to produce more uniform dispensations of the liquid product.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,258,247, that issued to Marquez teaches “An automated system for dispensing condiment packets includes a magazine for storing a stack of condiment packets and a dispenser for metering out those condiment packets. Multiple magazines and dispensers can be combined in a single condiment delivery assembly, thereby providing the means for dispensing a variety of condiment flavors. The delivery assembly can be incorporated into a fast food vending machine or can be designed as a standalone unit.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,894,270, that issued to Bailey teaches “A washroom device sensor uses at least one infrared beam that forms a longitudinal, rather than spot-shaped, sensing zone for detecting the presence of a user. The increased detection area of the longitudinal sensing zone ensures that at least a portion of the beam will contact a user using the washroom device. The beam may be adjustable in two or more directions to generate two or more sensing zones in different positions, allowing optimization of the sensing zone location with respect to a particular washroom device and the anticipated position of the device user.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,736, that issued to Phallen, et al. teaches “A condiment dispensing apparatus for dispensing condiments from a bag-in-box type container (108). There is a high durometer compressible elastomeric liquid flow tube (14), an infeed and outfeed thereto and therefrom, and a movable anvil (26) with a round surface to compress the tube. There is an opposed stationary anvil (28) which holds the tube for compression by the movable anvil. The tube is held between the anvils (26, 28) in a slightly compressed state even when the anvil is retracted. There is a control assembly (FIG. 15) that causes extension and retraction of the movable anvil to cause flow through the tube, and subsequent delivery of condiment to a dispensing fixture (110).”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,440, that issued to Saunders, et al. teaches, “Liquid soap dispenser for sensing the presence of a user's hands in the vicinity of a nozzle (6), and dispensing soap through the nozzle (6) in response to the detection of the user's hands. The dispenser includes a cylinder (10) and a plunger (21) within the cylinder (10), a magnetic core (12) coupled to the cylinder (10) or the plunger (21), and a solenoid (14) which is activated in response to the detection of a user's hands to cause relative movement of the plunger (21) within the cylinder (10) to dispense the soap. Preferably a plurality of dispensers are connected to a single reservoir of liquid soap.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,908 that issued to Shaw teaches “A wash station comprises a sink and a faucet. A source of water and a source of soap are provided. An electrically operated valve is interposed between the water source and the faucet for selectively supplying water thereto, and a pump and valve are interposed between the soap source and the faucet for selectively supplying soap thereto. An electrically operated roll towel dispenser is disposed proximate the sink. A first infrared sensor is operably associated with the sink for determining the presence of a user. A control mechanism is operatively associated with the valves, the pump, the roll towel dispenser and the sensor for causing water and soap to be selectively supplied to the faucet and for thereafter causing a length of roll towel to be dispensed.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,247, that issued to Shu, et al. teaches “An automatic soap dispenser having an infrared sensing device and associated circuitry to trigger a driver device into operation. The dynamic power of the device is generated from a motor, through a speed reducing gear to deliver a low speed, high torque driving power to a toothed piece. The toothed piece is driven forward in a direction perpendicular to the soap feeding tube of the soap storage bag, allowing liquid soap in the feeding tube to be squeezed and dispensed for hands cleaning. When the squeezing operation is accomplished, the resiliency of the feeding tube pushes the toothed piece back to its original position and is ready for the next soap dispensing.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,047, that issued to Chen teaches “An automatic liquid soap dispenser includes a liquid soap container which receives liquid soap therein and which has a bottom wall that is formed with an outlet port. A flow control unit includes a plunger and a tubular body secured to a bottom surface of the bottom wall such that a through-hole at a closed rear portion of the tubular body is aligned with the outlet port. The closed rear portion of the tubular body is further formed with an upright soap outlet adjacent to the through-hole. A ball valve unit controls the flow of liquid soap through the soap outlet. The plunger has a piston which extends fittingly and movably into the tubular body via an open front portion of the latter, and a flexible shaft portion connected to the piston. An actuating unit includes an infrared unit for detecting a target, a driving unit activated by the infrared unit upon detection of the target, and a driving gear driven rotatably by the driving unit. The shaft portion of the plunger is connected eccentrically to the driving gear so that rotation of the driving gear results in linear movement of the piston within the tubular body to dispense a predetermined amount of the liquid soap through the soap outlet. A contact switch is activated by the driving gear when the driving gear completes one revolution and deactivates the driving unit when activated.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,118, that issued to Cole teaches “A hand sanitizing wash station including a sink, a soap dispenser located above the sink for supplying soap, a water dispensing faucet located above the sink operated by a solenoid valve, a hot-air dryer located above the sink for supplying hot-air, a first infrared sensor for detecting the proximity of a user, the first sensor being operatively connected to the soap dispenser and the solenoid valve to activate the soap dispenser and the solenoid valve upon detecting the presence of a user, and a second infrared sensor for detecting the presence of a user, the second sensor being operatively connected to the solenoid valve and the hot-air dryer such that the second sensor will deactivate the solenoid valve and will activate the hot-air dryer.”
However, these solutions still do not solve all of the problems associated with a sanitary and regulated method for dispensing condiments. Thus, it is desirable to solve some of the problems associated with condiment dispensers.